Pickl
e
ls
a
e
e
r
g
i
d
Have a
M
ost
players
take
it for
granted
that the pickleballs they
use will have a consistent
bounce, last a long time and
not go out of round.
Franklin Sports, Dura, Onix and
Gamma manufacture their own line of top-
notch pickleballs. I sat down with Adam Franklin to
learn how the balls are made.
Adam explains a rotational molding process whereby
the optic yellow plastic powder is poured into a round
mold, which is then enclosed, evenly heated and
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consistently
spun for an
extended
period of time.
“The rotation
ensures that the
balls come out of the
mold truly round and
evenly weighted 100 percent
of the time," he says.
The cavity mold is then dipped
into temperature-controlled cooling water so the
ball hardens evenly. The durability of the ball is controlled
by the chemical formula of the powder. Next, the balls
are placed into a machine that drills the holes called the
Four Roto process. The spider look-alike machine has 10